2018 pride reads #2
 lgbt+ rep: bisexual side character, various other lgbt+ characters

I was expecting to really dislike this book, so already its exceeding my expectations. First, the good:
- Jude, while annoying sometimes, was a really good main character and I think Holly Black wrote her very well to be both sympathetic and morally grey. Her development was also really well done because it's (on the most part) subtle and I genuinely didn't expect her to do a lot of the things she did at the end, but they also made sense with her character.
- Vivi is the loml. That's all.
- I love Oriana was given depth beyond being a mean step-mother and I really hope she's given more to do in the following books.
- Holly Black clearly put a lot of thought and effort into constructing her faerie world, and I appreciated the small things we got, such as the way they're schooled.
- It's a tiny thing but the fact that this book a) both mentioned that periods exist and explained how faerie periods work, and b) had the main character pee at one point, made me appreciate it more. It made the characters and world feel more real.
- I'm not going to spoil anything, but the poison-related foreshadowing was done really well.
- The last 100 or so pages were really thrilling and probably one of the best climaxes I've read this year.

Now, the bad:
- Taryn felt like she was just there to cause drama, specifically drama with Jude that felt very girl-hatey to me. She never contributed to the overall plot and honestly, I'm just so sick of sisters fighting over petty things.
- Jace Herondale Sorry, Cardan, I got confused because they're  literally the same character! I hate Jace and, lo and behold, I hate Cardan too.
- Locke, Valerian and Nicasia were all really boring and underdeveloped so anything they did never really had an impact.
- The plot leading up to the last 100 or so pages wasn't overly exciting and it reminded me more of a contemporary drama than a high-fantasy political thriller.
- On that: this is not a high-fantasy political thriller, which sucks because that's what I kept getting told it was. It's a drama set in a high-fantasy world with some politics thrown in at the end.
- Holly Black's writing wasn't bad exactly, but it was choppy. Sometimes it would be very flowery and old-fashioned, sometimes it would be very modern, and I really wish she had just picked a style and stuck with it.

I honestly don't know if I'm going to continue the series, but I'm definitely not going to buy myself a copy of this book.